John Locke

Intrigued by the notions of inalienable rights, John Locke became known as a 17th century English philosopher of the enlightenment. Born on August 29,1632, Locke possessed a good deal of influence because of his connection with England and the United States. John Locke had a plethora of Philosophical theories. I will further elaborate on the idea of Locke's thoughts on inalienable rights.

One might first begin with addressing the question of what are Inalienable rights? To this I answer that they are those natural rights belonging to individuals by virtue of their humanity. Locke's focus is primarily based upon the ideas of freedom and equality as a whole. He believes that citizens should naturally possess the right to life liberty and happiness, which is portrayed in the constitution of the United States. These inalienable rights or natural rights have derived from the law of nature. The law of nature is a state that relies purely on the law of God, which is also known as moral law. This law gave people the natural right to life, liberty, and happiness without question. In addition, Locke believed that people also possess the basic right of self-defense if under attack. However, Locke's key aspect of his theories was the basic idea of equality. He said that nobody has the right to rule and that consent is critical because it's based on the premises that all people are equal.

John Locke is very much known as a political philosopher in today's modern society. Because much of Locke's philosophy centered on subjects such as natural rights and knowledge, he has in-turn shaped American politics in such a way that it has never been the same. Locke has challenged many theories have to do with inalienable rights as a part of natural law; therefore he had much to do with the involvement in the evolution of the American Government. He taught that, men by nature possess certain rights. He had a tremendous influence on all future political thinking....

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...Thomas Hobbes and JohnLocke were two of the great political theorists of their time. Both created great philosophical texts that help to describe the role of government in man’s life, as well as their views of man’s state of nature. Even though both men do have opposite views on many of their political arguments, the fact that they are able to structure their separate ideologies on the state of man in nature is the bond that connects them. Both men look toward the creation of civil order in order to protect not only the security of the individual, but also the security of the state.
For Hobbes, the state of nature is a very bleak, dreary place. He believed that people in this state were not guided by reason, but instead were guided by our innate primal, animalistic instincts. Hobbes believed that moral concepts such as the ideas of good and evil did not exist in the state of nature, and that man could use any force necessary in order to protect his life and goods around him. Hobbes called this condition “War” which meant “every man against every man.” Hobbes also described the state of nature as having no benefits that people in modern society take for granted: “No commerce, no agriculture, and no account of time, no arts, no letters, and no society.” Men in this state live with an overbearing sense of fear and grief, always on the defense in order to protect themselves, and their possessions.
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...JohnLocke was born on August 29, 1632 in England to a middle class family. He was named after his father, an educated attorney who had participated in the Civil War with the Long Parliamentary. Locke shared a great deal of affection and respect for his father. The relationship he built with his father influenced him to create his own views on education and government. His theory on education was published in 1693 titled, "Some Thoughts Concerning Education." Locke was accepted to Christ Church College, Oxford due to father's friendship with a member of the Long Parliament. The Long Parliment was known to challenge the monarchy in England at the time and later started the English Civil War. Locke attended Oxford for many years studying the curriculum in England and graduated with a Masters in 1658, pursuing his interests in arts. Later he became increasingly interested in the study of sciences including the study of medicine, which were on the rise in England Universities at the time. His interests in science continued to expand and he continued to apply himself to the study of medicine. While studying medicine Locke became interested in the philosophical questions of his time, including the rights of man. The rights of man deal with the powers of government to wit, government by the king through a monarchy and the power of the people through a social contract. Since 1660...

...An Successful Enlighten Thinker: JohnLockeJohnLocke (1632-1704) is a Philosopher and Physician. He was known as one of the most affective Founding Father of Enlighten movement. Because of his past occupation, who used to persuade to become a doctor, he understood how people's lives, and what was the best form of government that they need. Locke's theories in the Second Treaty of Government and An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, and his State of Nature, for examples, have influenced people and government system with his belief of man's political nature that people have certain right in society and they willingly give up their highly valued autonomy in order to live peacefully and comfortable under one united government that enforces rules and regulation that protect its people
According to John Locke's State of Nature, he believed human being was born to have some certain right. One of them is a state of freedom; he said that all man were naturally in state of perfect freedom to order their action and disposed of their possessions and persons as they thought without any bounds of the law of nature or depending upon the will of any other man. It means that individuals have freedom on life and making decision. Equality is the second state which all man was equal with natural right that no king or other man had power to voice because each individual was born equally with " all the same advantages...

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14 Feb. 2013
Paper No. 1
Social contract theorists Thomas Hobbes and JohnLocke agree that legitimate government comes only from the mutual consent of those governed. Although both were empiricists, the ways by which they came to their conclusions differed wildly, and perhaps as a result their views on the means by which society should be governed also conflicted. This paper will briefly address the different conclusions as well as the reasoning that led to them.
Written during the English Civil War of 1642-51, Hobbes’ Leviathan is presented as a rigid construction of reason. Building from base examinations of human senses, Hobbes defines a State of Nature in which man lives where there is no over-arching authority to regulate behavior. To Hobbes, man is fundamentally warlike and self-serving, leaving him to conclude that life without government is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” There is no sense that man might work together to avoid conflict because, to Hobbes, conflict is a given. Therefore, his first Natural Law is that man should seek peace when possible, but to seek self-preservation – the only natural right – when it is not. His second Natural Law states that in order to achieve peace, man should be willing to sacrifice his freedoms if others are willing to do the same. The result of this compact is a government created by those who are governed, or, a commonwealth.
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Thomas Hobbes and JohnLocke are two of the most influential political philosophers of the modern age. Their ideas on political philosophy, among other ideas, have helped shaped the Western World, as we know it. One of the most important theories that the two have both discussed, and written in detail on, is the idea of the social contract. Social Contract Theory is the view that moral and/or political duties depend on a contract that leads to the formation of a civil society. Thomas Hobbes was the first person to come up with the idea of a social contract in his text, Leviathan. As with any concept in history, other political philosophers have used Hobbes’ theory as a stepping-stone. One of those men is JohnLocke, who presents a very different account of how it is civil society is formed. Although both men have very different accounts on the social contract notion, there are some similarities between the two.
Before putting pen to paper Hobbes had a front row seat to a quintessential moment in early English history—the English Civil War. The war was a dispute between King Charles I and his followers, the Monarchists and the Parliamentarians. The Monarchists preferred the traditional authority of the king, while the Parliamentarians demanded more power for Parliament, England’s quasi-democratic institution. Hobbes is somewhere in...

...JohnLocke – The Second Treatise of Civil Government
JohnLocke
* Widely known as the Father of Classical Liberalism
* Was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers
* His work had a great impact upon the development of epistemology and political philosophy.
* Considered one of the first of the British empiricists. he is equally important to social contract theory.
* Published the “Two treatises of Government” in 1689
Two treatises of Government
* Two Treatises is divided into the First Treatise and the Second Treatise.
* The First Treatise is focused on the refutation of Sir Robert Filmer, in particular his Patriarcha, which argued that civil society was founded on a divinely sanctioned patriarchalism. Locke proceeds through Filmer's arguments, contesting his proofs from Scripture and ridiculing them as senseless, until concluding that no government can be justified by an appeal to the divine right of kings.
* The Second Treatise outlines a theory of civil society. JohnLocke begins by describing the state of nature, a picture much more stable than Thomas Hobbes' state of "war of every man against every man," and argues that all men are created equal in the state of nature by God. From this, he goes on to explain the hypothetical rise of property and civilization, in the process...

...understand all aspects of human life. The motivations for the enlightenment came primarily from the Englishmen, JohnLocke. JohnLocke was a philosophical influence in both political theory and theoretical philosophy, which was embraced among the era of 1789-1914 and the concept of equal rights among men. John Locke’s writings influenced the works of multiple diplomats concerning liberty and the social contract between society and the government. Locke’s ideology of man and power was the base for the concept of separation of powers. As one of the enlightenment thinkers, JohnLocke wrote the Two Treatises of Government influencing the framework of his ideal vision of the nature of man and his freedom, stating that all men exist in “a state of perfect freedom” as “every man being, has been showed, naturally free.” (Primary Sources, 156) His theories involved the money value within trading systems, education ideals, the blank mind shaped by surroundings, and the framework for the American Revolution. Locke’s ideas were taken and embraced as his ideas “seemed to offer the hope of a brave new world” built on reason.” (Spielvogel 516)
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John Locke’s Political Influence
JohnLocke is among the most influential political philosophers of the modern period. One can easily see his tremendous influence on democracies throughout the world, especially the United States, today. Locke was born during 1632 in Somerset, England. He was the son of a Puritan lawyer who fought with the Parliamentarians against the King in the English Civil War. At the age of 14, Locke attended Westminster School; and later went on to study at Oxford University. At the age of 43, Locke had traveled to France, where he would stay for four years to study Descartes and other great minds of the age. Locke then moved to Holland in 1683 amongst political unrest in England, which made living there dangerous for him. There he joined other English political exiles in a plot to overthrow King James II, which succeeded, resulting in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the flee of the King. By this time in the late 1680s-mid 1690s, Locke’s most influential philosophical works were published. From these works, Locke has been considered the Father of Classical Liberalism.
Classic liberalism advocates civil liberties and political freedom with representative government. During the time of Locke, most people believed that fundamental rights came from government....